Resources

We encourage the use the Potawatomi language whenever possible. Below are some resources for learning, teaching and speaking the Potawatomi language.

Dictionary

We would like to first thank our elders and fluent speakers/ teachers both present and those who have passed on. We would also like to acknowledge the continued support of our tribal administrative body to pass on and perpetuate our language. We hope this dictionary in its second edition will be a great resource tool for students of the language. This dictionary is a compilation of materials collected over the last 15 years by our language director, and materials which were already in possession by the Language Department before his arrival. As with all things this version of the dictionary has been a work in progress for the last several years. The previous version had around 1,900 words and a few audio files. The new version has close to 5,200 words and over 600 audio files. If you do see any areas which need corrected please do not hesitate to contact the language department so that we can make changes as necessary. One thing to keep in mind is Potawatomi has dialects. We tried our best to include words which were considered southern and northern terminologies when we knew them. We hope you will find the dictionary useful. It is only pc compatible at this time. You can download it to your computer and also can print it in book format Potawatomi- English and English- Potawatomi. If you have our previous version on your computer you will have to remove that version before you download the newest version to your computer. We wish to encourage everyone to learn and use your language. The language is a living breathing entity and can only continue to be such as long as we speak and use our language.

(The language department takes responsibility for any misquoted or incorrect information.)